What is 'Delusion', in the Buddhist Understanding?

Question

A biggie, for me... :-)

Answer 1

I am a Theravada Buddhist...allow me to respond to this wonderful question from a Theravada Buddhist perspective..perhaps others may find some wisdom to compare with their own...

There are many Delusions which we must realise to open our awareness to the truth of Life, that truth being the 1st Noble Truth, that Life is characterised by suffering and that we cause this suffering unwittingly by being unaware or Ignorant.

The Delusions then..?

Firstly the Delusion of Permanence of experiences and things. Our Consciousness has been trained from birth to see things and experiences a certain way and we continue to do so even when we know full well that it is wrong. This consciousness then deludes us because of the many characteristics and filters within it. Living our Life by using this Consciousness and its various Delusory methods and filters causes the very Delusions we seek to overcome. An example...we age..we know we age...yet we are forever worrying about this ageing...spending enormous sums of money and effort to maintain the appearance of youth...yet we know full well that not only do we age but we will eventually die with no way to stop this process...yet we continue to buy beauty products and plastic surgery to maintain this illusion...caused by the Consciousnesses inability to accept the reality of Life..that we age...and it causes us anxiety...Suffering.

This characteristic of the Consciousness causes our way of thinking to "see" our reality through these rose coloured glasses and to put a condition on everything we see and experience, even though we know full well it is false...the condition..? ..Permanence...Observe the above explanation on ageing...we see ageing in our visage every day yet we refuse to acknowledge it even when we see the evidence in front of us...Illusion and Delusion..

Permanence is Delusion...Everything in existence is Impermanent...understand and know this and you will no longer be under any illusory thought process....this will irrevocably change the way you think about everything that happens to you...

Second Delusion..?

We think that we have a permanent Self, some identity which defines who we are...Delusion...such an image changes every time we meet someone new...unless we train ourselves to recognise this Self and to release its influence on our way of thinking...Self causes Selfishness, it is insatiably Selfish and it arises whenever we experience something. This behaviour is caused by the Consciousness and is a condition within it. To Buddhists, experiences are experienced through our 5 Khandhas of Form, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations and Consciousness, these Khandhas react to our environment causing thoughts to occur in relationship with that environment. The problem is that we think these reactions are "ours" that these feelings and reactions are permanent and that they should be fostered, nurtured and kept, as it were. In reality, what is happening is that these feelings and reactions are because of the environment or experience, they are thus caused by something other than "Us" and when the experience wanes or the environment changes...then they change as well...therefore they are not permanent nor are they "ours"...they belong to the experience or the environment which caused them...for example, we see a pretty flower...does the beauty of the flower "belong" to us..? No...Does the gladness feeling we feel belong to us..? Again..No it was brought about...caused by the flower's beauty...without the flower in the experience there would be no gladness...we cannot simply conjour gladness out of thin air..it takes either a trigger via an experience, or a trigger from the memory of an experience therefore these feelings we feel are caused...they are not the real "Us" if they were we could conjour them without memory or triggers do you follow me..? If we feel feelings, then we are normal human Beings...but if we think we own these feelings then we are Deluded human Beings...

Take a sad event...the death of a close friend. We feel sadness and grief...all normal and legitimate feelings. If we think we own these feelings though, when the event of this death passes, we will continue to remember it and continue to feel these sad feelings. This is "Upadana" (picking it up) to Buddhists and it is Delusional behaviour and the real cause of real suffering. The sadness feeling is not the suffering because it is the normal feelings triggered by the event of the death of our close friend.

We should therefore Observe these feelings, feel them arise when we experience things then feel them wane when the experience wanes. This is for both happy as well as sad feelings. All else is Delusion.

Third Delusion..?

What we do has no subsequent Consequences. Karma to most folks is a myth because they are afraid that they will be required to take responsibility for their subsequent Actions. Karma is very fluid and Consequential. Where you are today and the circumstances in which you find yourself is a direct result of the Actions you took and the decisions made yesterday. As well as this, some experiences and circumstances are the direct result or consequence of someone elses actions towards you, The combination of your own choices and those of others has direct effects on what happens in our Lives which makes it so very important to make wise choices to both affect your own future and to wisely avoid the consequences of someone else's unwise Actions.

Fourth Delusion..?

Happiness is found by Selfishness. Selfishness causes suffering because when we are Selfish, we chase Selfish things and feelings to keep feeling the good feelings we get when we are Selfish. This perpetual cycle of Selfishness perpetuates nothing except Selfishness...the happiness is real enough, but it is always fleeting and always Self Serving...when the feeling is over we find the need to repeat the process in order to be happy again...all Delusional...real happiness is neither sought nor found, it is realised through wisdom and Selflessness...not just selflessness as in altruism although this causes positive Karma and therefore a better outcome thus a happier one, rather selflessness as in becoming a Not Self...by becoming the Observer of experiences so that Selfishness in the guise of Upadana is removed from the Consciousness altogether...once Selfishness is removed and there is no longer a Self to guide the Consciousness into such Selfishness, happiness as in Non Sadness remains...this is because any sadness feelings in any experiences experienced will not be "picked up", they will be left with experience as explained above...any happy ones will likewise be left with the experience leaving only the pure essence of the Mind...this essence...this is the real "you", there is no need to chase happiness it is already within...this realisation...this knowledge...this is the realisation which is to be realised after throwing off the Delusions fettering it...this is Enlightenment...this is the reason for the practise...Enlightenment is just such realised knowledge...it cannot be learned...it must be realised..

Some thoughts on Delusion from...

A Buddhist...

Answer 2

There is a hill forming the northern boundary of the city I live in, and to the South, there is the sea. I have no doubt that they will still be there after enlightenment. I am not a Buddhist scholar, so I can only say what I see with the eyes of a Buddhist.

Answer 3

Delusion is a term use by we buddhist whereby the mind has an mental images that occurs due to suppressed desire and drives. sometime these are cause by stress, phychological irritability or by spirits.

Thru Loving kindness meditation, we will not be disturb by Delusion and addition to that, Buddhist meditation concentration is usually developed by practicing Mindfullness of breathing.
Hope my answer helps.....

Amitabha!!!!!

Answer 4

Delusion is the lack of acceptance and/or understanding of truth.

Everyone who is not enlightened (everyone who has ever existed at some point) has had mind that grasps at ignorance. The root of this ignorance is desire, greed & anger.

Delusion has been and will be overcome, countless times.

Answer 5

Delusion is ignorance, or more specifically, grasping at the true establishment or intrinsic existence of the self and phenomena.

Answer 6

Delusion is ignorance, an unawareness of the real meaning of existence. When one is no longer deluded by the things appearing on the background of emptiness one is then *enlightened by all things*. *sip*

Answer 7

Existence of the separate self was described as an ILLUSION by the Buddha. Siddhartha saw all things as interconnected, and that through meditation on the interdependent nature of all beings and events, one could release the illusion of the self.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

Answer 8

Deluded thinking, is caused by our 'fundamental darkness'.
Opposite to 'enlightenment' which illuminates this 'darkness' and opens the mind's eye.

Thank you for your question.

They say without a seeking mind you cannot see your own innate 'enlightenment'.

Answer 9

A person living in a state of being deluded.

Answer 10

emotions such as anger, jealousy, holding thoughts and opinions which are not provable, views that are nihilistic and views that are hedonistic but in short any view that is against the four noble truths